Design and simulation of a micro-coiled digitally-controlled variable inductor with a monolithically integrated MEMS switch

Abstract

This work introduces the design, analysis, simulation, and a standard MEMS fabrication process for a three-dimensional micro-coil with a magnetic core and a digital switch configuration using a completely integrated, fully MEMS-compatible process to achieve a digitally controlled inductance. The proposed design can also be utilized as a micro-transformer. The proposed design consists of five identical 3D coils and their corresponding MEMS switches. These coils are digitally controlled to achieve a variable inductor ranging from one-fifth of the coil inductance up to five times the coil inductance. A standard five-layer Polymumps process is proposed to fabricate the micro-coils and the integrated switches. Each micro coil is anchored directly on-chip, which is connected to the input signal from one side, and the other is connected to the switch. The Ni-based magnetic core improves the coil’s response by confining and guiding the magnetic field in the magnetic device compared to Si core based by more than five times. The presented coil has the number of windings limited by the designed length and the minimum spacing that can be realized by standard optical lithography. The coil’s diameter is also restricted by the limits defined by optical lithography, whereas the maximum height realizable by the Polymumps process limits the height of the magnetic core and accordingly results in lower inductor performance. Based on this technique, we present coils ranging from 100 μm length and ten winding up to 1000 μm length and 100 windings. The new monolithically integrated MEMS switches act as selectors to achieve a variable inductance with digital control to allow the selection among n(n + 1)/2 inductance steps, where n is the number of coils.